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Bell: 49ers are loaded for 2013, and beyond

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Jim Harbaugh was still buzzing after the frenetic, three-day whirlwind of the NFL draft concluded Saturday. "There's been an air of excitement around here all weekend," he said, standing

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Bell: 49ers are loaded for 2013, and beyond

Jarrett Bell, USA TODAY Sports
9:16 p.m. EDT April 28, 2013

Safety Eric Reid, the first-round draft pick of the San Francisco 49ers, left, smiles as he stands next to coach Jim Harbaugh during a news conference at the team's training facility in Santa Clara, Calif., Friday, April 26, 2013.(Photo: Jeff Chiu, AP)

Story Highlights

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Jim Harbaugh was still buzzing after the frenetic, three-day whirlwind of the NFL draft concluded Saturday.

"There's been an air of excitement around here all weekend," he said, standing in the hallway at the San Francisco 49ers' nerve center.

And maybe that explains his brain lock. Harbaugh, a former quarterback, entered the NFL out of Michigan as a first-round pick of the Chicago Bears in 1987, but he couldn't remember who called him with the news he had been drafted. Was it his former coach, Mike Ditka?

"Uh, not sure," Harbaugh said, suspecting it might have been the team's former personnel director. "Maybe it was Bill Tobin."

Harbaugh, however, was the bearer of good news to the 11 players the 49ers drafted, beginning with Eric Reid — the LSU safety Harbaugh tried to recruit to Stanford when he coached there. Decades from now, guys like Reid, Tank Carradine, Marcus Lattimore and B.J. Daniels, a seventh-round quarterback from South Florida, will remember it was Harbaugh who broke the news.

"Everybody we called, it was so emotional," Harbaugh told USA TODAY Sports. "They were so excited. You could hear that there were so many people around. You say your name, but if they don't remember, who can blame them?"

Linebacker Corey Lemonier, taken in the third round, told reporters during a conference call — before quickly correcting himself — that he got the call from John Harbaugh. John, of course, is the Baltimore Ravens coach who beat his brother in Super Bowl XLVII.

Jim laughed when told about the slip-up.

"That happens a lot," he said. "Even with people I've known for 20 years."

In any event, it's a footnote to a case in which the talent-rich seemed to have grown richer. How the defending NFC champions will find room for more than a handful of rookies is a challenge for another day. Roster spots are tight.

But landing Reid fills a void created by all-pro safety Dashon Goldson's free agent departure. Second-rounder Vance McDonald from Rice can step into the No. 2 tight end role that Delanie Walker played before he signed with the Tennessee Titans.

Carradine, a second-round defensive end from Florida State coming off a torn anterior cruciate ligament, can be groomed to succeed aging Justin Smith.

Lattimore, who might have been the top-rated running back if he hadn't suffered a gruesome right knee injury last fall (dislocation, three torn ligaments), might eventually supplant Frank Gore.

The 49ers have the luxury of waiting on Carradine and Lattimore to heal. In fact, Harbaugh can see a scenario in which Lattimore, picked in the fourth round, doesn't suit up in 2013 and gets an NFL version of a redshirt year — on injured reserve.

"If he doesn't play this year, then he doesn't play," Harbaugh said.

Lattimore reports no setbacks with his rehab and hopes to be in pads this summer.

"We're going to slow things down for him, physically," Harbaugh said. "But I love the aggressive mental approach he has taken through this whole process."

The approach the 49ers took to the draft was aggressive in its own right. Even after trading picks to land wide receiver Anquan Boldin from the Ravens and backup quarterback Colt McCoy from the Cleveland Browns, they entered the draft with a league-high 13 selections.

Low-key general manager Trent Baalke deftly worked the draft board. To get Reid, Baalke sent the Dallas Cowboys a third-round pick (74th overall) to move up 13 slots to 18th overall.

With the second-round pick (34th overall) obtained from the Kansas City Chiefs for quarterback Alex Smith, Baalke moved down six spots to get Carradine — and picked up a third-round choice from the Titans in next year's draft.

Baake also made two trades with the Green Bay Packers, moving up in the second round to get McDonald and down in the third round to take Lemonier.

The 49ers dealt so much that they didn't use one of their own picks in its original slot until Louisiana Tech receiver Quinton Patton was chosen in the fourth round, 128th overall — three slots before a compensatory pick was used for Lattimore.

When the action was over, Baalke said, "It felt like a heavyweight fight."

Did they win?

"You never know," he said.

But it sure seems that way.

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